Humboldt County nursing homes targeted by class-action lawsuit

Class-action lawsuit filed against 15 Brius Healthcare facilities

By
Will Houston, Eureka Times-Standard

Saturday, July 28, 2018

Two California law firms have filed 15 class-action lawsuits against Brius Healthcare Services nursing homes — including two in Humboldt County — alleging the company purposefully understaffed their nursing homes to maximize profits, violating both staffing regulations and patient rights.

The law firms claim Brius Healthcare Services, the nursing homes’ administrative company Rockport Administrative Services, Brius Healthcare Services’ CEO Shlomo Rechnitz and “his multiple layers of affiliated companies” directed and implemented these violations in an effort to “pocket unearned profit at the expense of the provision of the legally mandated care to be provided to elders of the state.”

“To knowingly understaff these facilities in violation of promised resident rights so as to unlawfully maximize profit victimizes our important resource of elders and needs to end,” Garcia Artigliere & Medby attorney Stephen Garcia said in a statement this week. “These lawsuits are an effort on behalf of these vulnerable citizens to ensure that their needs are met and services, for which operators are paid incredibly large sums mostly by us through our Government, are actually provided.”

This reporter’s attempts to contact Brius and Rockport representatives for comment were unsuccessful on Friday afternoon.

Garcia’s law firm and the The Arns Law Firm in San Francisco allege in their complaints gave patients false or misleading representations of the nursing homes’ compliance with staffing requirements.

Two of the lawsuits were filed against the Fortuna Rehabilitation and Wellness Center and the Granada Rehabilitation and Wellness Center in Eureka.

The lawsuits call on the court to issue an injunction against the nursing homes for up to 10 years requiring them to maintain adequate staffing, to notify all future residents of the injunction, to award damages and attorneys fees.